UK 'lags behind Sweden' in heart attack care

Around a thousand lives could be saved each year if Britain provided similar care for heart attack patients as Sweden, according to a new study.

Researchers at University College London examined data from almost 120,000 patients in hospitals in Sweden and approximately 390,000 in the UK between 2004 and 2010.

They found that the death rate in the UK in the 30 days following a heart attack was 10.5 per cent - but the equivalent figure for Sweden was just 7.6 per cent.

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Care providers in Sweden were more likely to provide balloon angioplasty or stent placements and drugs such as beta blockers than their counterparts in the UK, suggesting they are making much better use of the technology available.

Over the seven-year study period, 11,263 deaths could have been delayed or prevented in Britain if patients here had received similar care, the researchers concluded.

Writing in the Lancet, co-author Professor Harry Hemingway said: 'Our findings are a cause for concern.'

According to the British Heart Foundation, one out of every two heart attack patients in this country will die.

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